WDW Hollywood Studios: General Discussion

[Sam]

Future Attraction Speculation / 25th Anniversary - (6/25/12) With the work on Fantasyland well under way by this point, and Avatar at Animal Kingdom still looking to be a few years out, this has led to a few thoughts and speculations about a possible series of major new projects rumored to be under development for the Studios. There are still the old rumors floating around, like the Monsters Inc. themed door coaster ride, a revamp of the Great Movie Ride or even a possible new generation MuppetVision concept. But then there are also a few other new rumors banging through the pipes… like a possible small upgrade to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster that could see Aerosmith dropped, or how about replacing Fantasmic! with a copy of World of Color… or the big one that I think everyone really wants… killing off the useless Backlot Tram Tour and redeveloping that whole property as a WDW version of Cars Land, complete with a new Cars 2 themed version of Lights, Motor, Action full of spy action, fast chases and big explosions.
Cars Land sure would be an awesome gift to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to celebrate it’s 25th Anniversary in 2014, wouldn’t it? Just saying… but whatever Disney has planned to celebrate the 25th, they’ll probably need to start on it before the end of this year.

I quite like the Backlot Tram Tour! Though definitely wouldn't mind seeing it depart for a (presumably bigger due to the space) version of the Cars ride!

 

[Sam]

OK, nobody cares about this topic, but hey.

Disney have announced that they're adding another 1,000 seats to the Hollywood Hills Ampitheatre, home of Fantasmic!

Also, one of my favorite nighttime spectaculars at Disney Parks will be growing. We’re installing an additional 1,000 seats in the Hollywood Hills Ampitheatre for the popular Fantasmic! shows. Fantasmic! is performed nightly and you can view our online calendar for specific dates and times.

Simply good news! Can't fault that!

(maybe this hints at further park expansion, thus, increased guest figures?)

 

[Alastair]

HS was my favourite park in all of Florida - it had the best feel of all the parks, quite easygoing yet had some brilliant shows and two world class rides. I hope Fantasmic isn't replaced because it's quite brilliant, although I do feel that the Aerosmith connection on the Rock n Rollercoaster is quite cheesy and badly executed, and so could benefit from being dropped. All in all though, park expansion couldn't be a bad thing. It's not too big a park yet and so it would only increase the diversity of the attractions there already.

 

[Sam]

Strong rumours suggest that HS has got the green light for a version of Cars Land.

Carsland gets the Green Light for Hollywood Studios

Trusted sources are confirming that the very popular Carsland from Disney California Adventure has been Green Lit for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The full details have not been revealed, but it’s reasonable to assume the following:

• Carsland will reside in the area currently housing the Studio Backlot Tour and Lights, Motors, Action, Extreme Stunt Show
• The Radiator Springs Racers and Tow Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree will be included as part of Carsland
  It is expected that the shops (Sarge’s Surplus Hut, Ramone’s Body Art, etc) and restaurants (Flo’s V8, and Cozy Cone) will be included.
• The shop intended to house the RideMakerz shop will probably not be included, or will have a new theme.
• Luigi’s Flying Tires will probably be modified or removed entirely due to the capacity issues with the California version

At this point in time, it is unclear what this means for other projects in Hollywood Studios and/or James Cameron’s World of Avatar in the Animal Kingdom. It seems that all of the other rumors that have been circulating are very fluid right now and could change at any moment. The other items currently being discussed for Hollywood Studios are as follows:

• The Monster’s Inc Coaster, first rumored in 2008 by Jim Hill, would be placed in Soundstage 1
• Indiana Jones Adventure from Disneyland would replace the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. For years this was more of a Disney fan wish as opposed to something being realistically considered, however it does seem like things have changed. Even still, I wouldn’t expect this to be built at the same time as Carsland which still puts the likelihood as relatively low.

In the Animal Kingdom, Camp Minnie Mickey is being cleared out for World of Avatar, but it doesn’t mean that the project is any closer to construction. The clearing out of Camp Minnie Mickey began in 2008 when the Pocahontas and her Forest Friends stage show was removed. At the time, this was to make way for another project (a version of Tokyo Disney Sea’s Mysterious Island), but as the economy struggled Disney suspended those plans. After the September 20, 2011 announcement of the World of Avatar, Disney has continued to clear out Camp Minnie Mickey. In August of this year, the closed Beastly Bazaar in Discovery Island and it will be reopened as an indoor character meet and greet area. This is widely assumed to pick up some of the slack once the Character Trails go away from Camp Minnie Mickey. In January of 2013, Festival of the Lion King is expected to close for 6 months before re-opening in it’s new area behind the Tusker House in Africa.

All of this relocation seems to indicate that Avatar is still happening as a project, but multiple outlets have reported that the project is either dead or dying. As of right now, it seems that the point of contention is the budget. Initially, the budget was $500 million, but Disney is looking to cut that down to $400 million. The result of this would be the cut of a major attraction that James Cameron is excited about. Cameron is evidently upset by this potential cut as well as Disney’s suggestion that they sell Disney themed Avatar merchandise. To further clarify, this would be classic Disney characters made up to look like N’Avi. Disney has previously done similar things with Star Wars characters such as Goofy as Jar Jar Binks, Donald as Darth Maul, Jedi Mickey and Minnie as Princess Leia.

Little information has come out publicly on the Avatar project, but right now the attractions being discussed are as follows:

• Flora and Fauna of Pandora walk through: This would be a family attraction, and possibly the entrance to the land.
• Soarin’ over Pandora: This would use a simulator similar to the existing Soarin’ simulator but with 3D components
• Motorbike Coaster: Designed by ride manufacturer Vekoma, the Motorbike design was proposed for Shanghai Disneyland for a Tron attraction. The vehicle seating is similar to that of a motor cycle (guests leaning forward with their feet back) and would face potential capacity issues. The theming of this ride would be elaborate, and it is the likeliest thing to be cut if they’re trying to reduce the budget. It also seems this is the project that James Cameron is most enthusiastic about.

While Carsland has been given the green light, the other projects are still very much up in the air at this point in time. It’s unlikely that Disney would construct additional major projects at the same time as Carsland, so if these other options happen, it’s safe to assume that their time frame is further out than Carsland.

http://www.wdwfanboys.com/blog/carsland ... d-studios/

Spotted by Ian over at CF.

Lots of exciting rumours. However, the one I'm most excited about is the even slight possibility of my favourite dark ride ever - Indiana Jones Adventure - making its way to Orlando!

 

[Sazzle]

Wow, fantastic update there! I'm very very excited to hear Carsland going to Studios, as it looks amazing in California. Any ideas if it'll be on the same scale?

The Avatar rumours have been doing the rounds for SO long now! I'm wondering if it will ever actually happen at all :-/.

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[AstroDan]

Motorbike coaster?
Ugh!

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[BigAl]

Tron themed motocoaster? About time!

 

[Alastair]

James Cameron seems to be sticking his fingers in too many pies of late. Rather than trying to push through what would be a terrible coaster capacity wise for a park like WDS, he should let those who know what they're doing do their job and find a compromise whilst he goes off 100 miles below the sea or whatever he happens to be doing today.

 

[Natalie]

I'm not too fussed about Avatar, but I am about Cars, Monsters Inc. (especially with the new movie coming out) and the Indiana Jones dark ride (which also like Sam is one of my favourite dark rides). I hope Disney step away from Avatar before they have thrown too much money at it asthe franchise is already not a prominant as the others. They already have a great working relationship with Lucasfilm so why not start bringing the best from California to it's eastcoast sister resort?

 

[Maelstrom]

Apparantly The moto coaster would be themed as the flying creatures from the film and would be a highly themed indoor coaster which would include flying around the floating mountains. Also disney are very good at increasing capacity of coasters through the use of duel stations and block sections etc.

 

[Joelio]

Avatarland to me is a massive joke... just when you think Disney is getting back on track BAM, they toss in an expansion which would be like having a WDS inside Animal Kingdom. They should just spend the rumoured budget on their own IPs, maybe build EPCOT's Mount Fuji coaster? or do Australia in Animal Kingdom, or the Beastly Kingdomme rumour... They have alot of creative talent to play with and it shocks me that they'd go with what is essentially blue Pocahontas.

 

[Harv]

Who actually wants Avatar? Nobody, really. Disney have some of the most entertaining and attractive IPs of all time, so why can't they use them?

Surely they can find something that everyone will enjoy. The Beastly Kingdom thing sounded great and although it would be better suited to Animal Kingdom, there's nothing to stop WDS being equally original.

Still, if they're rolling out Carsland, then I'd love to see one in Paris in years to come.

 

[Will04]

Indiana Jones Adventure! ;D Wow - if they do build it I will be so happy. It is such a great ride (a true Harry Potter beater).

As for Cars Land, I'm not so sure - it does look brilliant, but I'd much rather Orlando built, let's say, Journey to the Centre of the Earth from Tokyo DisneySea, rather than steal DCA's crown jewel (or even better, build a whole new land/ride).

Still, great news if true!

 

[Sam]

According to Screamscape, the 'Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow' walkthrough has soft-opened.

 

[Lordy]

Never even heard of it before!

Where is it exactly?

 

[Sazzle]

Please don't tell me its just a walkthrough with loads of Johnny Depp models... please!

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[Sam]

Fall 2012 - The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow - (11/21/12) One of our readers shot a little video at a sneak preview visit to the new Jack Sparrow attraction at the Studios on their cell phone. Check it out below if your not worried about spoilers. As you will see, this is more of a special effect show performance as you join Captain Jack’s crew on a little adventure. Thankfully this is not just another “Making of” style walk-through of movie props.

Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, Preview, Disney's Holl

Looks quite good actually!

 

[Sam]

Cars Land is coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios!
Shaun Thompson | Posted: Dec 5, 2012 | Updated: Dec 5, 2012 - 1:17:16 PM

While still a rumor, The DIS has confirmed from multiple sources that Disney will officially announce this week that they are bringing Cars Land to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Lights, Motors, Action! and the Backlot Tour will be leveled to make room for an expansion of Pixar Place to include the new land. Disney opened Cars Land at Disney California Adventure back in June to rave reviews and this would be a much needed boost to DHS, which is starting to show its age.

While we don't know yet which attractions will be included with the new expansion, attractions like Radiator Springs Racers have been wildly popular and most likely would be included.

We first reported on this rumor back in July in both a news story and on our DIS Unplugged Podcast.

At this time, this is still a rumor but we will be sure to update as more information is available. Stay tuned!

Yaaaaaay!

I don't see a problem with opening multiple versions of the same ride around the world if its amazing. Nobody complains that there's more than one Haunted Mansion or Space Mountain.

 

[Wilsy]

It's a shame that it will propbably be massively cheaper version compared to the California Adventure version and all that amazing rockwork will be metal cut-outs. Rockwork is too expensive for the suits that run WDW.

Tokyo's version will be much more exciting.

 

[Sam]

General Park News - (5/13/13) I’ll keep this listed officially as a “Wild Rumor” for now… but according to a source the Beauty and The Beast show may soon come to an end at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. This part makes sense on all fronts, as not only is the show older than dirt, but the characters from the film have all pretty much moved into The Magic Kingdom now with the addition of the Be Our Guest restaurant, Gaston’s Tavern and the Enchanted Tales with Belle walkthrough adventure.
So it’s safe to say that the show really isn’t “needed” on the Sunset Strip location anymore. This is where the rumor takes a turn for the wild however. You could think that Disney would simply replace this with a new live show of some kind and reuse the existing show venue. (There were once rumors of a show themed to Tangled for example.) However our source tells us that the theater building / structure itself may have some issues that need addressing, and rather than repair or even rebuild what is needed, they could very well opt to use the site as the location for a new dark ride attraction of some kind.
The location is an interesting one because just behind the theater is a large open section of land that Disney has not been able to use for the theme park. The site behind Beauty and the Beast was originally earmarked to become the home to Copperfield Magic Underground, a restaurant concept that would have allowed guests to visit from inside the park as well as those outside. Apparently Copperfield’s side of the investment failed to materialize and the project never went any further than site clearing and a brief appearance by a promotional billboard outside the park entrance before the idea was quickly scrapped and brushed under the rug.
Anyway… take a quick look at the site of the Beauty and the Beast show next to the Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror… and then see the huge empty lot behind behind it. That is a seriously big piece of property that Disney could use for a major new attraction or mini-land if they wanted to. In fact, about the only way Disney would ever be able to use this property for the park is to remove the show theater and redevelop the entire site once and for all. So if the show is ready to be retired… now would be the time to make this happen. Stay tuned!

Cars Land much?!